In a market as competitive as storage networking, there's plenty about which to cheer and jeer. And the last 12 months have been no exception. As customer demand increases for data protection that works, we've seen rocketing successes -- and resounding failures.

InfiniBandThe year was a good one for InfiniBand, which seemed to crop up everywhere in announcements and marketing materials. Actual implementation rates may not be as dramatic, at least in high-end networks: Recent statistics released in November 2007 show that InfiniBand is the network of choice for 24.2 percent of the world's top 500 supercomputer systems -- down from 25.60 percent in June 2007. Still, InfiniBand is clearly filling a need in big data centers, even though its popularity may wane when 10-Gbit/s Ethernet ramps up.

ServicesFrom online backup to storage-as-a-service to consulting, customers are reaching out for all kinds of help with storage neworking. This last week alone has seen news from Dell and EMC, as big players look to flesh out their offerings. Ongoing demand should boost startups like Nirvanix and help others, like consultancy GlassHouse, move toward IPO.